"He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries
to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun
with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized
nation."

"He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas
to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their
friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands."

And, then the payoff paragraph, to which the rest was a preamble. Note that the first power asserted was "the power to levy war:"

"We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in
General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world
for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority
of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That
these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and
Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the
British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the
State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that
as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War,
conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all
other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And
for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

***Thank you for your patience with my prolonged absence. I'm typing this on Friday, the last day of a two-week trip with my youngest daughter to England and Germany, two countries with which the United States was once at war, but which are now steadfast allies. They represent each of the first two powers asserted by the newly formed United States of America: to levy war and to conclude peace.